About

A brief history of runtimes

Every decade, a new abstraction makes software faster to write and slower to run.
Elide breaks that pattern.

1970s

Machine Code & Assembly

Software written directly for hardware. Maximum performance, zero portability. Every machine was an island.

1972

C & Unix

Ritchie and Thompson proved systems software could be portable without being slow. C became the lingua franca.

1991

Java & Python

Virtual machines and interpreters traded performance for productivity. Enterprise chose Java. Scientists chose Python. The split began.

2008

Chrome & V8

Google proved interpreted languages could be fast with JIT compilation. Node.js followed. Everyone started writing servers in a browser language.

Now

One binary. Your favorite language. Native performance.

JVM Toolchain

The best option for JVM: Elide.

The JVM runs the majority of enterprise software on earth—and ships with some of the slowest, most complex toolchains in modern development. Maven, Gradle, Bazel: verbose config, slow builds, impossible learning curves. Elide adds a new option.

DX

NPM-like invocation model with a beautiful TUI

Speed

Powered by Native Image for insanely fast startup

Config

Works out of the box. No plugins or config needed

Build DSL

Declarative + imperative, powered by Pkl

Compatible by default

Same inputs. Faster everything.

Drop-in replacements for standard JVM tools. Your existing code, dependencies, and workflows—just faster.

	Elide	Maven	Gradle	Bazel
Cold start	~5ms	~3s	~6s	~10s
Config format	Pkl (typed)	XML	Groovy / KTS	Starlark
Zero config	✓	×	×	×
Native compilation	✓	×	×	×
Container images	Built-in	Plugin	Plugin	rules_oci
Multi-language	✓	JVM only	JVM only	✓
Learning curve	Minimal	Steep	Steep	Very steep

What's next

The JVM is just the beginning.

Elide is built on GraalVM—the same polyglot foundation powering Oracle's cloud infrastructure. JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and WASM support. One toolchain, with native speed.

Read the docs →